To Boldly Go
by Blubberbutt Chunkybap
Summary: Sick of Nagayoshi's unsocial behavior and spoiled upbringing, Kakuzu introduced his stepsister to his close friend, Kisame. Not the right occupation for socializing lessons, but could be the right guy for her. Police AU. KisaOC. Will turn M in time.
1. Late Summer Morning

**To Boldly Go**

**[1] Late Summer Morning [1]**

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><p>The tall man with the tan complexion stepped out of his car, a black Peugeot 4007 SUV. He opened the trunk and heaved out a suitcase. After closing all opened doors of his car, he pressed the lock button on his remote car key. The Peugeot made a clinking noise and jammed its locks down. He rechecked the locks by trying to open the car's doors. They didn't budge, which was good. Only the key can open the locks now.<p>

He walked down the yellow garden pathway onto the front door of a house with two pots hanging beside the door. The house was fairly spacious: around 450 meters square. With the garden and the pool, the total area was 17 x 40 meters square. The garden was nicely taken care of; the gardener the house owner had hired did a magnificent job in arranging the flowerbeds alongside the pathway. She even planted some Sansevierias near the fence. Those easy-to-maintain simplistic plants cleansed the air from smoke, keeping the house's air fresh.

He heard high pitched dog barking. As he arrived before the staircase to the verandah, two Welsh Corgis only half of his shin tall ran towards him. Their almost-nonexistent tail wagged with vigor. One particular vigorous corgi jumped at his leg. He smiled and rubbed the short dog's head. He climbed the stairs with the dogs coming with him. They barked again, telling their master there was someone standing by the verandah. He ignored their barking and pressed the door bell. The sound rang all around the verandah and inside the house. He waited and not long, the door knob turned. A woman one-and-three-quarter of his age opened the door. He smiled at her.

"Hello, Mother." he greeted.

The woman beamed and hugged her adult son, "Kakuzu, darling!" She kissed him on both of his cheeks. She looked at him with her eyes narrowing as her rising cheeks pushed them up. Her shoulders rose and her breathing shook as she giggled. "You look great, sweetheart."

"I try to keep in shape." he replied. "If not, how am I gonna catch the bad guys?"

Kakuzu's mother laughed heartily and grabbed her son's large hand. She brought him inside the house and commanded her two Welsh Corgis to return to their own mini house. The first thing that Kakuzu noticed as he entered the house he used to live in was the piquant aroma of liver pâté, his favorite dish. He entered the kitchen to check out and found out that there was more than one. Kakuzu nearly couldn't control his stomach.

"Don't touch anything." his mother told him from the direction of the oven. From the looks of it, Kakuzu knew she was preparing a pie. Most likely an apple pie.

"I haven't even moved, Mother." Kakuzu replied.

"I know, but I warn you before you move." she said. Kakuzu smirked; she was the roots of his cautious nature.

Her cautiousness began to grow when Kakuzu was just a child. Ever since her divorce from her abusive husband and moving out of Takigakure City, she had lived a struggle. She struggled to raise Kakuzu all by herself; she changed jobs often and fought against bills. She hadn't loved or went out with any men that time. However, many events had passed and she had learned from it all to become who she was at the present: a tailor with her own small shop ten minutes from home.

"Why don't you give your little sister a visit? I'm very sure she's delighted to see you." she suggested, her eyes and attention were still fixed on the pie.

"Alright." he said and walked out of the kitchen. He brought his suitcase with him and walked up the stairs where all the rooms were. The last step on the top of the staircase brought him face-to-face with the corridor. More nostalgia then surged into his brain, but he ignored them for a while.

The master bedroom's door creaked open and a man five years younger than his mother stepped out. Graying mustache and beard covered the areas around his mouth and his chin. His obsidian eyes then met Kakuzu's jade ones.

"Kakuzu! You're finally here!" he greeted him delightfully. His smile was as bright and warm as the first time Kakuzu met him.

"Hey, Dad. Good to see you." he greeted back. The step father and son hugged for a while.

"Oh, my little girl is going to be really excited to see you!" he said, putting a hand on Kakuzu's shoulder. "She's in her room, by the way, if you're looking for her."

"You don't need to tell me. I know her enough to know her lifestyle pattern. But let me just put my suitcase in my room."

The two men parted and Kakuzu entered his room when he was still living in this house. He turned on the lights and it revealed its rather empty insides to him. Of course, it looked rather empty; Kakuzu brought most of the stuffs to his house in Amegakure City. What were left here were his belongings during his high school years. He didn't stay in the room for long as there was someone else he wanted to meet.

It was on the far side of the corridor, right across the door to the attic. It had the same white colored door, just like the other rooms, but it had a Bumblebee door tag on it that stated the owner's name. Kakuzu usually just opened the door right away, but this time, he decided to knock.

"Come in." answered a girl's voice from within. Just as he suspected, she didn't expect his arrival. So inside he went.

The room's light wasn't on, but the setting sun shone right into the room. It was just like his room, except instead of sunset, his room received the sunrise. He scanned the room. It was the most crowded bedroom he had ever seen and so far, nobody had beaten this room. It was filled with action figures of many things relating to comics, movies and TV shows. They all have one similarity: they belong to the genre science-fiction.

He spotted the inhabitant of the room on the corner, sitting beside the wide window with a 13-inch laptop sitting on a conveyable table, like the one they have in hospitals. She didn't seem to care about whoever entered her room, but Kakuzu was going to change that.

"I was expecting a little welcome, but I guess I had my hopes up too high." he said, aloud, trying to fish out her attention. To his amusement, the owner of the room turned around, realizing that it was the voice of her stepbrother talking. Her bespectacled eyes widened and so did her smile. She pushed the table aside and rose up to her feet. She dashed at her brother and leapt to hug him, since she was much shorter than him.

"Oniisan!" she squealed. "I didn't know you're here!"

"Well, I've just arrived." Kakuzu replied. He let go of his sister and she brought him deeper into the room. "I see you've added some more collections since I last saw you, Nagayoshi."

"Yeah...I've gotten all of the _Star Trek_ action figures. Now I have nothing more to collect and am bored." Nagayoshi answered, sitting on her low-posted bed.

Kakuzu sat beside her and asked, "But aren't there any other shows, movies or whatever you like that has action figure lines?"

"The new Thor action figures, but they haven't arrived here yet. And I can't buy at Amazon anymore since...umm...you know..."

"You hacked it." Kakuzu finished.

"Gah!" Nagayoshi guarded her head with her arms, as if those words would shoot her the way the arrows in _300_ would. "Don't remind me, please…. I may have erased all evidence about me there, but it still scares me."

"Well, it was your own fault." Kakuzu replied. "Okay, to get you away from the trauma, I might as well ask away."

Nagayoshi unguarded her head, eyes blinking at her stepbrother with curiosity. "Ask what?"

"Have you done something? Applying to the university? Get a job? Get involved in some social service, maybe?"

Her eyes and head turned away from Kakuzu's face to the floor. Her eyebrows fell heavily above her eyes. She shook her head. "No, nothing." she answered gloomily. "I don't know what I'm going to take in uni. Getting a job sounds a little too tough for me, and you know very well that I don't like meeting people I don't know at all." she went on. She dropped her body on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She took off her glasses and put them near a pillow.

Hearing that, Kakuzu rolled his eyes and sighed. "Nagayoshi," he called, "I know some strangers can be completely freaky, but c'mon, you gotta meet new people and get to know them. You haven't met anyone new since you were schooled at that fancy private school Dad put you in. Hell, you didn't even make many friends there, except for that quiet midget boy—what's his name again?"

"Erai. Shakuhachi Erai."

"Right, him. Whatever. Still, meeting one or two new people won't kill."

"Unless I meet a serial killer."

Kakuzu sighed again. This stepsister of his was not the most social person in the world, not even half-social. She may chat a lot with him and their parents, but she didn't communicate with anyone outside her family at all. That boy Erai was an exception. He used to be a neighbor of theirs, but moved out to Amegakure City. The two had been friends since they were just five. And the fact that she had just turned twenty last summer only worried him more. She couldn't stay with her parents forever.

For the time being, Kakuzu decided to let the argument go. He changed the topic, but deep down he knew that it would make her feel bitter all over again. "It's almost dinner time, kid. Why don't you dress up and be ready in thirty minutes." he said as he rose to his feet.

Nagayoshi sat upright. "Dress up? Why should I dress up for dinner?"

"Because Dad's having guests." he answered.

Kakuzu heard her say, "Tch," much like he expected. But then she mumbled, "Alright...I'll be ready in a jiffy."

**{-}**

For the second time of the day, the doorbell rang. This time, the visitors were older and were a couple. Straightening his tie beforehand, the head of the house opened the door and greeted his guests with a warm smile. "Subaru-san," he shook the male guest's hand, "it's great to have you here."

"Likewise, Kandori-san. This is a nice house you have." replied Subaru. "I've been dreaming of having a house like this; vast garden filled with flowers, a two-storey house...do you happen to have a pool on the backyard?"

"Sure! Why don't I show you around while my wife is preparing the dinner?" he closed the front door and lead his guests to the swimming pool through the garden. The two Welsh Corgis had already been instructed not to come and jump up to guests by their mistress, Kakuzu's mother. They were, however, allowed to bark a hello at the guests.

Meanwhile, the rest of the residents were rushing to prepare the food on the table. Kakuzu helped his mother bringing the food while his mother arranged them on the circular dining table. Nagayoshi, however, was still in her room, watching her father showing the guests the swimming pool on the backyard. She was already dressed neatly in a red blouse, long black formal pants, and black leather ankle boots. Yet something deep inside her brain kept telling her not to come down.

Her father and the guests walked back to the front door, their face were smiling and laughing. At which point, her door surprised her with a loud knock. "Nagayoshi, you ready? The guests have entered." said Kakuzu, voice muffled behind the three-centimeter rectangular block of wood.

Nagayoshi sighed, as if her fate was inevitably doomed. She walked to the door and as she opened it, her stepbrother was waiting for her. He looked at her unenergetic poise and at which his eyes narrowed. At that instant, his brain began to formulate a plan—a plan that he wished could work.

"Is this okay?" Nagayoshi asked, looking down at her fashion. "Unlike Mom, I don't have any dress."

"It's fine." answered Kakuzu, nodding in approval. "Come, I bet they're waiting for us. Back straight." He pushed Nagayoshi's back a little, fixing her slightly hunched spine and shoulders. The two walked down the stairs and then to the dining room where the guests were anticipating to see the host's children.

Nagayoshi closed her ears from then on, though her hands didn't take part in subduing the voices. She could already guess what they were about to say. For as long as she could remember, Kakuzu always got the attention and praises. People kept saying how great he was and how successful he was with his job now. And no matter how many times he had been praised with awe, he received them with utter humbleness and resumed his job as usual. On the other hand, Nagayoshi wasn't much to talk about. There was nothing of her to boast on, unless the listeners could accept that she was quite a good hacker for a girl and managed to escape when Amazon found out that she had been hacking their system to get free action figures. Hacking is a crime. There's nothing to be proud of from a crime act.

She grew to accept the bitterness. She was, indeed, seventeen years younger than Kakuzu. Kakuzu had worked part-time in several places when the only thing she could do was trying to talk. And when they finally met for the first time, not yet brother and sister, she was just about to go to playgroup. It was just inevitable that her brother will always be ahead of her.

Nagayoshi didn't say a thing after greeting the guests. She just sat quietly, looking at the food (she was apparently quite hungry), and was not listening to any of the conversation. All she cared was when the dinner would end and when she could go back to her room. Nobody paid attention at her lack of delight. Nobody, except one. The one whom people talked about the most was the one who paid attention to every single movement of discomfort.

In between meal courses, the parents and the guests would talk. When it was time for dessert, Subaru's wife asked a question, "So how did you two meet, Kandori-san?"

Both Kakuzu and Nagayoshi held back a sigh. Every time they have guests coming for dinner, this question was never absent. Their parents, however, were never bored of telling their story over and over again.

"Well, she used to work at a daycare center." he answered. But Mrs. Subaru wanted more story than just that. Hence, he continued, "It was my first day working at Mnemosyne's new building here, in Konoha, and my babysitter had just retired a week before. I can't possibly bring my then-two-year-old daughter to work, so I decided to bring her to the daycare center. That was when I first met my lovely Yasuki here." he said, cupping his wife's chin at the end of the sentence.

Yasuki giggled, "Oh, Rishin. Not now!"

"What? What's wrong with a husband displaying his affection to his wife?"

"Nah, that's normal, Kandori-san. My wife never lets me either." said Mr. Subaru, glancing to his wife.

Mrs. Subaru ignored her husband's attempt to lure her and demanded the continuation of the story. "So what happened next?"

This time, Yasuki recommenced, "We just kept seeing each other every time she dropped in Nagayoshi-chan to the daycare. Until one day, he asked me out."

"But then you're technically Nagayoshi-chan's babysitter. So who do you left her with?"

"With me." Kakuzu answered out of the blue. "And my grandparents too. I've never dealt with kids before, so the first time Mother trusted her to me, things were really awkward. Luckily, she was already two."

"But you two kids became inseparable after that." Yasuki added.

"Eventually, yeah." Kakuzu turned to Nagayoshi, smirking at her which she did not return.

"Nagayoshi-chan has been very quiet now." Mr. Subaru remarked. Now all eyes were on her, to her dislike.

"She's pretty shy around strangers." Kakuzu replied. "She wasn't this shy when we first met."

Nagayoshi changed her mind. She sometimes got attention, but the trigger had always been her soundlessness. And all of the family knew very much that the reason of her silence was not that she was shy. Although not completely, but Nagayoshi was Xenophobic. Back in her school years, she begged for her father to be homeschooled. Rishin was about to oblige, but Kakuzu and Yasuki disagreed. So instead of homeschooling his daughter, he enrolled her into a private school instead.

The night was getting late and Nagayoshi could really get out of the dinner table. Fortunately, Rishin and the guests decided to discuss the business matter in the living room instead with a glass of red wine. However, Nagayoshi couldn't escape to her room yet because she had to do the dishes—her nightly routine and the only chore she had to do. At least Kakuzu was stuck with the dishes too.

"Thanks for the help, Oniisan." said Nagayoshi. "I still don't understand why this house has no dishwasher."

"Sorry to say this, sis, but I think it's to reduce your lack of muscle activity." Kakuzu replied. He received a bitter glower from his sister. "Said I'm sorry…"

The next ten minutes, only the water spluttering and ceramic dishes squeaked. When all dirty dining tools were cleaned up, Nagayoshi broke the silence, something she wouldn't have done if it weren't with Kakuzu. "Oniisan," she called, "can I sleep in your room tonight? With you?"

Kakuzu jeered as he put the last glass and leave it to dry. "Are you kidding me?" he replied, knocking a fist softly onto his sister's skull.

Nagayoshi pouted, rubbing her head where his knuckles knocked her on. "Haven't you ever heard of 'I miss you' before?" she grumbled.

"Haven't you heard of 'You're big enough' before?" he replied tauntingly.

"Meany." Nagayoshi grunted and turned her back against him. Her arms were crossed.

Kakuzu sighed to her childish behavior, but at least it wasn't one of her bad habits, she was just being playful. She was only childish around him and her parents. He patted her shoulder and said, "Alright, but only for tonight. After that you have to sleep in your own room."

"Yay! Thanks, Oniisan! I'll change into my jammies now!" she immediately rushed out of the kitchen and dashed onto the stairs. Kakuzu followed a few seconds later, taking a less hurried pace.

In his room, he changed into his sleeping attire: a thin t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. He approached the bookshelf on which stood many books of the old times. Kakuzu enjoyed older literary works, claiming that they were more artistic in choosing their words, even in dialogues. One would notice that none of his collection was from years over 1970's. His collection, however, was only fifteen percent of the many books he had read. Half of it was in his house in Amegakure.

The door to his room suddenly opened and Nagayoshi bounced inside. She hopped onto his bed and pulled the covers up. She shivered, "Man, your room is always cold!"

"Don't blame me. You don't like coldness very much, so my room isn't exactly suited for you." Kakuzu replied.

"That won't keep me away! G'night, Oniisan!"

"Yeah, good night."

**{-}**

Nagayoshi couldn't stop swinging her feet as she sat before the dining table eating her breakfast. Her family was complete. It was something that could happen for one week, every three months. At those times, Kakuzu would get a week off from his job. In that one week, he always stayed in his former house in Konohagakure City. Not only that, the fact that she just spent a night with her brother was also one factor that made her have ants in the pants. But the ants were exterminated by ten-fifty in the morning.

All four of them were sitting in the living room where Rishin discussed a matter of business last night. None of them was leaning against another. No arms were circled around the shoulders. And nobody sat beside Nagayoshi; everybody was sitting across her. Last time this situation happened was when her hacking activity was discovered by Amazon. The debate ended up with her laptop confiscated for a month. That was enough to make her suffer like a medieval prisoner.

Nagayoshi gulped, "Listen, guys, I don't hack websites anymore. I've learned my lesson."

"This is not about hacking." Kakuzu said. His bass voice gave the atmosphere a hefty weight to carry. His voice was even more powerful than his stepfather's. "And although you've learned your lesson for the last incident, there's yet a bigger issue for you to learn about."

"A bigger one? It's not my obsession for aliens and robots, right?"

"No, it's worse. Dad..." Kakuzu turned to Rishin on his far right.

Unlike his wife and stepson who had stern, serious-looking expression, Rishin's face was the opposite. He fiddled his thumb, gulped a little, and said, "It's your fear of strangers, Nagayoshi-chan. We…we think that you're too unsocial and we feel that you need to change that."

"Are you saying I have to change my personality? That's—that's brainwashing!"

"No, darling, it's not like that!" Rishin tried to take back his words, but deep inside, he knew. "It's time for you to grow up, honey. You're not a child anymore."

"I am not a child! I'm twenty!" Nagayoshi retorted.

Beside the trembling sixty-year-old, Kakuzu sighed silently. Maybe he shouldn't have left the talking part to his stepfather after all. He glanced to the side and Rishin was getting nowhere. So he barged in, "We're not talking about your age, Nagayoshi." His husky bass voice pierced through the late summer air flowing into the room through the windows. "This is your mental setting that we're talking about. Even though you're an adult, your mind is still like a child. You even still plead with puppy eyes to your father, just for some stupid action figures!"

Nagayoshi cringed at his voice and at the insult that he said about her action figures. Kakuzu didn't give her any chance to talk back and he didn't plan to until he was finished.

"You're way too spoiled! You always get what you want and when you don't, you hide inside your room and refuse to eat until you get what you want. You might think life is easy with your wants always fulfilled, but have you ever thought about what Mom and Dad were thinking? Have you ever cared about the house you live in? I know we're financially in a good position but no one knows if this will last for a hundred years. And you ignorantly rave all the money we need to pay everything—to buy more action figures and all that stuff you usually buy."

Kakuzu ruled the house as of that moment. All figures bowed to him, even his much-respected mother. Only one who still had the head held high: Nagayoshi, Kakuzu's defiant sister. She still couldn't accept her brother's words, but she couldn't stand against it any longer. She had lost her weapons to fight back. She hated that.

"And please, don't let me start on socializing again." Kakuzu grumbled. "You've been friendless for quite a long time now. I'm not talking about your online friends; they're not even real friends, despite having a body on the other side of the line. You can't stay lonely all the time. You'll need some friends to help you live through." The man had decreased the tension. He never liked scolding someone like this. For some reason, it was harder than interrogating criminals to spill out what they have done to their victim and why. Interrogating was easy for him. All he needed to do is to glare at the criminal, ask him questions, and when he lied, he would mentally torture them with his words. But he couldn't do such a thing to his own family. His family was not made of killers and he had no reason why he should treat them as such.

There was a three-minute pause of silence. The absence of the wind made the room slightly humid. Rishin who had perspired produced more cold sweats, the most he had ever produced in his life, especially as he saw the eyes of his beloved little daughter redden. He bit his lip; he never felt this guilty in his whole life. A gentle hand was placed on his hands, stopping him from twiddling his fingers further. His wife smiled reassuringly at him. She knew how he felt, but like her son, she was determined that the act they did that day was right.

Nagayoshi took a long but sharp inhale. She grumbled, "So what? You guys wanna punish me or something?"

"Punish you? No!" Rishin replied.

"We never intend to punish you. It's not the point of the whole…conversation." Kakuzu added. He held down a grimace. _Maybe conversation wasn't the right word…_ "We came to an agreement this morning, our folks and I. We decide that you're going to come with me to Amegakure. And your allowance will be cut in half."

Nagayoshi sat bolt upright. Her eyes were extended to its maximum. "Wait! Cut in half? I thought you guys don't want to punish me, but that's just the same as locking me in prison!"

"Don't exaggerate! I'm going to teach you how to save money instead of spending it. You know I'm an expert in that." Kakuzu retorted coldly. "You still have five days here. I suggest you start packing your stuffs up and prepare to move out of your old room to a new one at my house."

Nagayoshi rose to her feet and stormed upstairs, out of the living room. She wanted to shout something at them, something angry, something rude. But she had no guts to insult her family like that.

"Na-Nagayoshi-chan..." Rishin tried to call her, to get her back.

"Leave her, Father." Kakuzu stopped him. He nodded to his stepfather, telling him it was alright. It was normal for someone who always gets what she wants to be upset after her freedom was taken away.

Rishin slouched on the sofa, frowning upon Kakuzu. "Why do you always call me 'Father' when you're giving commands or upset?"

"He always calls me 'Mother' ever since he was a kid." Yasuki said, grinning at her husband. "You'll get used to it."

Moments later, a slam upstairs exploded throughout the house.

**{-}**

Nagayoshi took of her thick-rimmed glasses. The lenses had a drop of water on them and after that, hand prints smeared all over. She dropped on the side table as she fell into her bed's comfortable hug. She grabbed a pillow and soaked its dried flower motif cover with her tears. She had never been treated this bad by her own family. For some reason, having her laptop confiscated for a month felt like nothing at all. She knew she had done something terribly wrong back then. But now…

She let her tears ran to her pillow as well as muffled her sobs with it. She cried and cried…letting all of her frustration out. Her mind was running on Kakuzu's words; on how her high demands for everything had given burden to the family. She didn't want to believe it, but…_no, that can't be…!_

Her father was the Senior Product Manager in Mnemosyne, a gaming software company. It may not be as large as Square Enix or Ubisoft, but in the country, the company was prided as one of the most successful. With that position, surely money would not be a problem, Nagayoshi thought.

Then she gasped. Kakuzu's words were as true as his and her own existence. But if that was the problem, couldn't they just tell her not to spend excessively? She may be defiant, but she was quite obedient. Why did Kakuzu have to make her move out of her beloved home?

Actually, Nagayoshi could guess the answer but believed that her counter-reason was not just mere words spoken out. It has a background. A background that Nagayoshi never shared to anybody. Not her parents. Not even her brother whom she trusted the most.

She wished that pen the agents in _Men in Black_ have—the pen that erases a certain memory and then replace it with a made-up word-to-vision memory, made by the agents. That way, she wouldn't be this flawed.

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><p><strong>Oh...yeah! My very first drama romance fic from me! I'm so nervous...<strong>

**This AU has been around my head since last December. Now I'm using it for my OC's romance story. Just a little information: the members of Akatsuki work for the law and order whether as a police, military soldiers, judge, or the government. But not all of them will appear in this fic and I don't take requests.**

**For those who've read _Bird Cloth_ and _Flight of the Hummingbird_, you surely recognize Nagayoshi, but ninja-verse Nagayoshi and modern day Nagayoshi are different, as you can see. I do turn her into a nerdy geek and gave her glasses, though her eyesight isn't that bad. I've also given her a father and Kakuzu a mother.**

**Enjoy the fic, guys! And I want to see your reviews, tell me how you think or how weird the plot seems.**

***EDIT: Kakuzu's car, from a sedan into an SUV. You'll know why soon.  
><strong>


	2. Nervous

**[2] Nervous [2]**

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><p>The two Welsh Corgis belonged to Yasuki watched as their pack leader and her family carried large brown boxes into Kakuzu's SUV. The male of the Corgis had dug up what was inside one of the box and he found countless of immobile humans not even half of his height. He had his eyes on a Data action figure and before he could steal it, his master had taken the box away.<p>

Over the week, Nagayoshi had refused moving into Kakuzu's house. She didn't state the reason, which only confused Kakuzu. As far as his memories could take him, Nagayoshi loved Amegakure city and his house, even though it was half the size of her house now. He supposed that it had something to do with her leaving her belongings. So he bribed her by letting her bring the entire collection of action figures—not only the _Star Trek_ and/or superheroes ones, but the others too. Although not beaming, Nagayoshi agreed to the conditions.

Kakuzu half-regretted for letting her bring the entire collection, but it was one sacrifice necessary if he wanted his sister to come with him. So there he was lifting the sixth cardboard box into his SUV. The car looked almost overloaded with only the boxes on board. He hoped Nagayoshi won't bring a massive suitcase. He needed the back passenger seats empty.

"I think that's the last of the boxes." Rishin said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Yep. Now we need the suitcase and the kid herself." Kakuzu added. "Where is she?"

"She's still upstairs, I suppose. I'll fetch her for you." The sixty-year-old man went inside the house. Kakuzu reclined onto his black Peugeot SUV to relax his muscles. The female Welsh corgi approached him and he picked her up. As he waited for Nagayoshi to come down, the corgi licked his chin.

**{-}**

Despite the soft beige wall, the room was officially the newest form of the Null Void, or the black hole, or the interior of a Dementor's throat. Without the action figures, Nagayoshi's room felt like the Earth without people. She glanced into her wardrobe and it was completely emptied. The freshener was what was left inside. She heard footsteps coming towards the opened door to her room. Soon, the graying hair of her father popped in.

"Kakuzu's looking for you, sweety. Come on!" he said. He stepped further inside and seized Nagayoshi's large suitcase. The girl stood up and slung her laptop bag on her shoulder. Looking down, she followed her father. Rishin noticed the position of her head and stopped for a moment. He lifted her chin up and smiled at her. "Don't put such a long face, Nagayoshi-chan. I know you're upset with this whole moving out idea, but I promise it's for your best."

Nagayoshi threw her face. Her expression hid the revulsion when she heard the words 'for your best.'

Rishin moved her face to look at him again. "Whatever you do, whatever happens, your mother and I will always be there for you. And your brother…while we're not around, he'll be the one to protect you." He kissed his daughter's head and gently held her wrist. He lead her downstairs, to the waiting Kakuzu.

Kakuzu held back an ugh-I-knew-it sigh when he laid his eyes on Nagayoshi's suitcase. It was gigantic, just like he undesired. Heaving, he placed the red boxy suitcase into the baggage. If it weren't for his car being an SUV, he would have tied the suitcase on the roof of his car.

After another session of farewell hugs and kisses, the stepsiblings drove off the long road to Amegakure. It was a five-hour drive, passing through great rivers and mountainous hills. That was why they decided to depart at eight in the morning, to avoid traffic in the toll way entrance. Nagayoshi looked at the rearview mirror. The sight of her parents, the two Welsh corgis, and the house were fading at thirty-seven miles per hour. Then it was just the road and the houses of people she did not bother to say hello to.

**{-}**

The Republic of Ningoku is a small country on the east of Japan. It was a former Japanese military base during the World War II and it was from here they dispatched the planes that destroyed Pearl Harbor. The formerly small island achieved its independence in August 16th, 1973, yet the country still maintains a good diplomatic relationship with Japan. As a matter of fact, the Japanese emperor gifted five hundred different units of Shinkansen for Ningoku's fifth independence anniversary.

As history recalls, a few hundred years ago, the country was said to be inhabited by ninjas. Provinces were used to known as countries. Until the present day, all of the provinces retained the old country names. They use elements or stuffs of nature as names. Fire Province, Air Province, Water Province, Earth Province, you name it. The large villages were upgraded into cities along with the development of technology.

The small island had changed over the past few years. Some locations of cities were fallen tragically due to a number of earthquakes. One of the most memorable tragic falls was Amegakure City. In 1978, just a couple of months after the Miyagi earthquake in Japan, an earthquake hit at 7.9 Richter scale. The damage to the earthquake was beyond expectation: soil liquefaction occurred and submerged both the city and the Rain Province. Even the tall buildings were submerged! Only the skyscrapers that still could breathe, but they were not even safe to live in anymore. The whole border of Air Province and River Province was submerged as well and after decades of raining, the liquefied ground of the border has turned into a lake that is directly connected to the sea.

The city was then rebuilt up to the southeast of River Province; the provincial governor even gave one-third of the province's territory to become the new Rain Province. The new city was finished rebuilt ten years later—a long struggle it was—near the Fire Province border. The new city of Amegakure came up with two names, made by people who had been monitoring the development of the city. The first mayor of the city called it 'Neo Amegakure', but a Scottish journalist called it 'Amegakure Beta' and the former as 'Alpha'. The Scot's terms are more popular to most people, though. The city is now closer to the sea. To prevent tsunami from attacking the city, a thirty-meter high wall was built.

Nagayoshi spent almost the whole five hours asleep in the car. The girl didn't snore and the only sound available was the car engine and occasional cars honking their horns. Kakuzu's eyes were focused to the road and when there was traffic which only required him to hold the steering wheel with one hand and foot on the gas pedal, he grabbed a sandwich to refuel himself.

Usually the trip was filled with Nagayoshi chattering about this and that, but perhaps her upset hours for the last week tired her out and she fell asleep. It was good for Kakuzu's sake of concentration on the road, but he couldn't shrug off the weirdness. A thought came to his head: _is this how it feels like to be a stranger to Nagayoshi?_

Forty minutes later, the SUV passed under a blue archway with giant yellow words on it saying, _Welcome to Amegakure City!_ Kakuzu nudged his sister hard when he stopped before the red traffic light. "Wake up. We're here." he said.

Nagayoshi yawned and asked, "How long have I slept?"

"Almost the entire journey. The first four hundred miles your eyes were avoiding me." Kakuzu answered, not afraid to be too blunt on the last one.

Nagayoshi frowned and rubbed her lethargic eyes. _I'm still going avoid you,_ she thought and repositioned her seating. Kakuzu noticed her head was positioned to make her eyes look out the window. He scowled.

"C'mon now, Nagayoshi! You can't keep avoiding me like that! I may have taken most of your 'luxury' but it is not in my intention to make you suffer." Kakuzu groaned. The red light had yet to turn green. Many cars were still streaking left and right in front of them.

"Yeah, that's not what my new allowance said." Nagayoshi replied grumbling.

"For crying out loud! Grow up, will you? Even with your new allowance, you're still richer than most teenagers in the country! Hell, you're even richer than I was when I was your age! You're not a kid anymore, you know that? You're twenty; you're supposed to be an adult! You should be getting money from your boss, not your parents anymore!" Kakuzu snapped. He sighed. The traffic light turned green and the SUV wheeled its way across.

"I don't want to get a job!" Nagayoshi protested still. "I'm…I'm not cut out for it. And I don't think my hacking skills can be accepted in legal shops or companies. Anyway, I can't!"

"What do you know if you haven't tried a thing? I used to have the same insecurity because my background has always had been martial arts and fighting. But Grandmother told me to just give it a try and two days later, I was working at a bar—Grandfather's suggestion. I dealt with drunken people every day for three months."

Nagayoshi snorted, amused by her brother's story, but her eyes were still to the window. "Well, I'm not going to work at a bar, that's for sure."

"Of course. You should never work there. Instead, I was thinking to put you somewhere more difficult…"

Nagayoshi resisted the urge to bring her hand to her forehead. She groaned, "Go on, how else are you going to torture me, Oniisan?"

"I told you. I have no intention to torture you. It's all for your—"

"What? For my good?" Nagayoshi cut in. The stepsiblings exchanged stares for a brief second, one was bitterer than the other. "Dad told the same thing to me back at home. It's all bullshit adults say to their kids just so that they can keep the kids under their control, restricted."

"Wow. Despite your age, you talk very much like a kid." Kakuzu criticized her.

"Are we done talking?" Nagayoshi asked sourly. Her offended obsidian eyes pierced right into Kakuzu's jade eyes.

Kakuzu frowned, as bitter as she. He pulled the car over and yanked the parking brake. He unfastened his seatbelt and unlocked the car. "Yes," he replied, heaviness in his voice, "we're done."

"Great." Nagayoshi was about to unfasten the seatbelt as well until she realized that Kakuzu had stopped the car in an unfamiliar neighborhood. She looked to the house in front of which the car was parked. Still unfamiliar. She blinked, twice. "Wait…where the hell are we? Why are you going out? Oniisan!" For a second there, she thought she had said something wrong that made her brother so pissed off he decided to ditch her, her belongings and the car until he was not pissed off anymore.

"I'm fetching my kids. They must have missed me." Kakuzu answered. His voice clearly showed no anger. Nagayoshi felt relieved. She had to keep reminding herself not to make her brother angry. Well, it was not like he was going to turn into the Hulk, but Kakuzu's anger usually blinded him. There were several times when Kakuzu lost his temper and his interrogees were made as stress reliever. Luckily, Kakuzu's attachment to the code of conduct caused him to stop on his own and his comrades replaced him for the mean time.

Nagayoshi watched as the door to the house was opened and a woman greeted him. She and Kakuzu talked a little. The woman then retreated inside the house while Kakuzu was waiting outside. Then a man greeted him; Kakuzu didn't look amused at all to see him as opposed to the man's wide grin. The man had silver hair, entirely slicked back, exposing his forehead. His eyes had purple, almost pink tint to them. He was slightly shorter than Kakuzu, but his smugness was obviously bigger.

The silver-haired man's eyes roamed around the neighborhood and met Nagayoshi. The girl did a double take and diverted her gaze. She bit her lower lip. That man saw her and she cowardly turned her head away. She just made another bad first impression. After a few seconds, she glanced from the corner of her eyes. The man had returned his attention to Kakuzu. Feeling safer, she scrutinized the man's features and suddenly remembered Kakuzu's description of his partner-in-crime-solving. _Could that be Kakuzu's partner? And the woman, who was she?_

The same woman appeared from around the house, each hand holding a pair of dog leashes. All four dogs were of massive size. The smallest (yet still big for human standards) and also the youngest of the four dogs was the female Rottweiler, Gabija. The second smallest was Zola, a female German Shepherd. The biggest and the oldest of the four was Avira, a female Great Dane. Last but not least, the only male and the second biggest in the pack was Tenrai, a Doberman Pinscher. Nagayoshi and the dogs were no stranger to each other.

It amazed Nagayoshi even until that second how Kakuzu could take care of four gigantic dogs all by himself. He had taken care of them ever since they were puppies and had trained them properly. Kakuzu did admit to her that the food was the one that caused him to spend a lot of money—much to his dismay. But that was why he intentionally chose short-haired dogs—to save on grooming. She asked him once why didn't he just bought smaller dogs. Kakuzu simply said, "Bigger dogs are better." She didn't argue, not that she has anything against that.

The dogs, despite missing their master, didn't try to jump on him and lick him on the face. Kakuzu was saving the affection for later. Right now, the dogs needed to hop into the SUV. This was also why Kakuzu didn't want the backseat empty—so he could put his large dogs. Usually, when alone, Tenrai sat on the front, beside him, but since Nagayoshi was taking his place, he had to sit with the girls.

As soon as the dogs got into the car, the three females greeted Nagayoshi and tried to lick her face one by one. Kakuzu didn't allow them just yet and commanded them to stay put until they arrived home. He fastened his seatbelt as the engine of the SUV roared back to life.

"Try not to send off negative energy, okay?" Kakuzu told her, patting her on the head.

"Grud…you watch _The Dog Whisperer_ one too many!"

"Hey, his methods work great."

**{-}**

Kakuzu's house was only 250 meters square, nearly half the size of his parents' house in Konohagakure. The yard was smaller too, but it was enough for his four dogs to roam around and play with one another. There were three rooms, one of which was Kakuzu's room. Initially, when Kakuzu first moved out of his parents' house, he wanted a house with only one room only for himself, but none of the house choices in Amegakure had a one-room house with a big yard. Kakuzu needed the yard for his dogs (back then, the dogs weren't these four) so he decided to buy a bigger house instead. The extra two rooms were usually used by Nagayoshi and their parents when they stay over.

Moving Nagayoshi's cargos was a painstaking job. Even for a muscular guy like Kakuzu, moving the boxes of toys caused his biceps and triceps to groan. Worse, the owner of the boxes' contents couldn't do half better than her brother. She didn't carry any of the boxes into the car that morning; she was busy packing them and not paying attention to the trouble she may cause to herself and her brother. She tried to lift a box (which was filled with 12-inch superhero statues made of ceramic) and she nearly broke all the statues by surrendering to gravity's force. Luckily, the biggest of the dogs came to help her by lending her back. Together, the ladies brought the box into Nagayoshi's new room, which was across Kakuzu's. Nagayoshi felt bad for Avira; what if the weight of her stuffs broke Avira's back? Kakuzu would not forgive her.

It didn't take an hour to lift those boxes in—there were only eight of them. Arranging and organizing the toys, however, took more time, especially since Kakuzu had no clue where each of the action figures belongs to. Kakuzu's high sense of organizing influenced his sister strongly; hence, Nagayoshi did not appreciate misplacement of her belongings. Many times, Kakuzu wondered if only Nagayoshi was influenced by his frugal trait, the number of boxes might be reduced more than half.

The time was fifteen to two and they were finally done organizing.

"Your new room's not so bad, eh?" Kakuzu asked, lying down on the bed.

"I have to admit, yeah. My collection fits nicely in here." Nagayoshi replied. She was lying next to her brother. Both of them stared at the white ceiling in silence. Their breaths that were hurried had slowed down. The cry of their muscles had subdued. Avira, being the only dog who lent a paw, lay on the bed beside her master.

The silence ceased. "Now what, Oniisan?"

"Time for your program to run. You know that movie _Up in the Air_? The one we watched together last spring while our parents were having their bi-yearly honeymoon?" asked Kakuzu.

"Oh, the one with George Clooney having an executive membership thing, right? What about it?"

"Remember when he took that girl with him and taught him about the art of firing people? Your program I designed is loosely based on that—only you're not firing people."

Nagayoshi's forehead scrunched. Her neck rotated briskly, whisking her head to the side. "I'm going to be a police trainee? Of all things people do in the world, why police?"

"You're not coming to work with me. I'm kinda in a middle of something. Anyway, if you keep sticking with me, you're not going anywhere. I'm sending you to a close friend of mine. I think you've met him before."

"Uh…which friend? I don't remember you bringing any friends home."

It was Kakuzu's turn to turn his head to the side. He turned his head more gently so as not to break his neck. "What? Oh, come on! Are you telling me you never even met him just once?"

Nagayoshi shook her head.

Kakuzu groaned, rolling his eyes. "Does Hoshigaki Kisame ring a bell to you?"

"I hear no bells ringing. Seriously, who's he?"

Kakuzu covered his face with both hands. "God help me…" he sighed, causing Nagayoshi to scowl. "He was my friend since college—junior to my year, though. He was a fellow student of Grandfather's school and black belt martial artist. Five years younger than me. Freakishly tall. How's that?"

"Still nothing. And you said 'college'; I was six when you first entered college! How am I supposed to remember a person from that way back?"

"Childhood amnesic, huh?"

Nagayoshi gave him a look of which one of her eyebrows pressed on her eye while the other arched uphill.

"Sigmund Freud," Kakuzu began to answer Nagayoshi's questioning look, "once said that a person forgets the memories of under the ages of three to seven years old. He said—or more like believed—the reason such thing can happen is because adults are trying to repress sexual urgings or traumas from that time."

"I don't remember having sexual urgings or trauma when I was six." Nagayoshi objected.

"Neither do I." Kakuzu added, to Nagayoshi's surprise. "Well, or maybe you were just ignorant, too focused on whatever cartoon you were watching. I remember introducing him to you and, yep, you were too attached to the TV. See how bad TV can result to your memory encoding."

"You just love mocking me, don't you?" Nagayoshi grumbled.

"It's in my role as a big brother, kid." Kakuzu chuckled. "C'mon, aren't you hungry or something? Let's eat outdoors, shall we?" The tall tanned man stood from the bed and he waited for Nagayoshi to stand up too.

"Let me do some finishing touches first, okay?" Nagayoshi said, sitting up on the side of the bed.

"Fine. I'll call you when I'm ready."

The sister smiled and the brother walked out of her room and into his, just three steps in front of the door. Though Nagayoshi told him she wanted to do some finishing touches, in reality, none needed them. She just needed a few seconds to contemplate. The white female Great Dane came towards her and then lied down beside her, her belly facing Nagayoshi. When Nagayoshi didn't rub her belly, she rose and licked her face. Nagayoshi put a hand behind her ear, but her mind was not on Avira.

Avira sensed her disturbed mind and turned aside, making the side of her body touched Nagayoshi's chest. The twenty-year-old put her arms around Avira and she whispered, "I'm nervous, Avira."

* * *

><p><strong>As you might've guessed—or wonder—I did do some research about earthquakes and what they can do to the landscape. I kinda need the earthquake part. And I also tweaked quite a lot of Japan's history.<strong>

**The four dogs Kakuzu owns represents the four masked monsters he stores on his back. Even their names represent their respective elements. Gabija is fire; Zola is earth; Avira is air; and Tenrai is thunder. As we all know, Kakuzu himself is water. I choose big dogs because, really, can you see Kakuzu leading a pack of miniature dogs? I'd crack myself up. And Kakuzu watching _The Dog Whisperer_ is a little self-insert. Hey, he needs Cesar Milan's methods if he wants to control all of his dogs.**

**Oh, before all of you starts asking me…not all Akatsuki will appear. Only Kakuzu and Kisame will come out in every oncoming chapter. Others may not. Hidan may appear once or twice, but don't expect more. However, I will put some canon characters who never appear in any of my fics so far, some OCs in _Bird Cloth_, and an OC from way back. So…have a nice read!**


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